KB 4th birthday

Kiernan went bowling for his fourth birthday and invited his friends from school. He requested we go bowling, and asked for a Spider-man cake. As usual, I made the cake and it took a long time. I'm getting better at not taking so long at decorating these cakes, but it can still be time-consuming.

Saying the magic words

He got this wizard costume, and a homemade Harry Potter wand from his grandparents. 

November 2012

In November we:

Gave mom heart attacks

Went down slides

Had sword fights

Tried juggling

Spent Thanksgiving with friends and got our first impromptu family picture

Went back to Chibi's

Acted silly at the dinner table

Sang primary songs in Barzilian Portuguese

October 2012

We had lots of fun in October

The cousins came and visited us this month

PK got stuck in a cupboard

We went to a child's playplace, child furniture is awesome

KB got rolled around - seriously awesome! (this was at Chibi's)

Grandparents visited, and KB read to Grandma

KB was Mario for Halloween

PK was a cute penguin

Delicious pumpkin cookies at school

Penguin, Snow white, strawberry and Mario

Another one of his class

PK worked on his walking skills

And KB worked on his cueing skills. 

(I know this is brief, but doing the blog 7 months later really can make it hard to remember everything!)

September 2012

This month was busy! I started doing my home visits for work, KB started school, PK turned one and had his activation AND second MAPing. PK's birthday will be in a separate post for two reasons, 1 - it's a birthday post, he deserves it, and 2 - Bryan has all the pictures somewhere....I have no idea where.

KB started his first day of school on September 6th. He was so excited! He is a peer model in the Cued Speech preschool classroom. The nice thing is that his classroom is where my office is, which makes dropping him off and picking him up that much easier. Life would be a lot easier if he could ride the bus, but they only provide the bus for those students who have an IEP, and he doesn't have one. So I have to provide transportation. that's ok as it allows me to see him a little more often throughout the day!

This is right in front of his school

We did take a short road trip over the weekend to Harper's Ferry. That was fun.

Bryan and KB walking on the railroad tracks

This picture was not prompted in anyway. It was very sweet to see this without a parent asking them to do it.

A long video, but I wanted to show off his receptive skills for cueing. In the beginning he is actually cueing about the light. 

I'm in trouble, the boys are already learning how to play "rough" with each other. Boys will be boys.

The funny thing about this video? Patrick can walk just fine now. He doesn't need any help. He just likes pushing the train around.

For some reason, PK found this hilarious. We're just knocking on the door of the picture of the house.

PK loves the kitchen a little TOO much. He does this whenever I tell him no, or get him out of the kitchen. It makes cooking time...interesting :)

Loving cheetos. Don't worry, I don't feed him junk food all the time.

Kiernan knew where all the parts of a bus went. 

This picture surprised both Bryan and I. We've never been able to get KB to get into color or drawing, so I had no idea what he was capable of in terms of drawing. He came home with this picture, and Bryan didn't think he at least drew the majority of that picture himself. 

So...to prove Bryan wrong, the following picture is a bad picture of KB's drawing of daddy in the sand. I watched the whole thing, and he drew a head/body, arms, legs, eyes, nose and mouth all on his own. Our kid is growing up!

He's walking ALL over the place, ALL the time now. So crazy

PK's 1st birthday

PK's first birthday went a lot smoother than KB's. KB was very sick for his, so we were not able to do much. PK was the opposite! He had just gotten his first implant activated the day before the party, other than that he was healthy as he could be.

We invited some of our close friends and a couple of people from the ward who had children PK's age. It was fun, and we enjoyed it a lot. We had it at a park in Fairfax, had subway sandwiches, chips, juice/milk and cake. Unfortunately Bryan and I forgot to take a picture of the cake. Fortunately, it's the same cake I made for KB's birthday. So just imagine the coloring to be a little lighter because I did not anticipate how much the humidity would affect the butter cream frosting. 

KB's old cake, but this is what PK's cake was too, down to the flavor of the cake.

I learned that there were very very few photos of me with PK that day, as I was moving around a lot as I talked to guests and mostly tried to keep KB in line with good behavior. I had good friends to help me out with PK and made sure he had a good time too.

Patrick having a great time. Photo by Chance Hammock

Bubbles with Jenny. Photo by Bryan Mulholland

Jenny and Patrick, there's a picture somewhere of her holding Patrick the day he was born, and her birthday was two days after Patrick. Photo by Chance Hammock

Hamming it up with Dad! Photo by Chance Hammock

Singing/Cueing Happy Birthday to PK Photo by Chance Hammock

Checking out his cake while we sing. Photo by Chance Hammock

Having a blast eating his cake. He LOVED it. Photo by Bryan Mulholland

Of course, we can't forget KB. He had so much fun. After the party, he had the chance to go out to a baseball field right next to the park with his friends, the Hammocks and the Jansons. As you can see, he had a lot of fun.

KB after playing in the baseball field and eating cake. Photo by Bryan Mulholland

It was a fantastic day, and the only thing that could've been better is if I had an actual photo of all four of us, and a picture of the cake.

PK's Activation

Before watching the video, there a few things that I want to explain:

-We went in expecting him to cry. The majority of children cry at their activation appointments because hearing sounds is such a new sensation they don't know how to deal with it. It doesn't hurt them, it's just a new thing that's never happened before. This especially happens with babies who did not benefit from hearing aids at all. PK did get some sounds from his hearing aids, but certainly not enough to benefit from them, hence the surgery. He didn't cry, which surprised us, and the audiologist was very happy to not have another crying baby in his office :)

- In the beginning of the video you will not hear any sounds, but will see him reacting. The Audiologist is checking the electrodes and the nerve responses through the internal component, which causes some beeping sounds that only PK can hear. I know this as I experience it myself at every audiology appointment I go to for myself. 

- Look for subtle responses. Great big smile with squinty eyes, imitating babbling, pausing in the middle of what he is doing and looking at people.
- I edited the video to make it shorter so you can see the reactions specifically. We were unsure at the appointment if these were actual reactions. Since being home from the appointment, we have seen consistent responses the way he reacts in the video with sound in our own home. While he does not react every single time (as expected, he is still learning how to hear), it's often enough that we KNOW he's hearing things.
- The audiologist starts off with conservative programming so that we do not overload the child's brain with stimulation. Having both of my cochlear implants activated at the same time helped me to really understand that. I was EXHAUSTED after having both of mine activated. Typically, at least out here, with young children, they activate one a time in order to make sure they have the programs set appropriately. Children as young as PK are not able to tell us specifically if something doesn't sound right, is too loud, or is wrong. Doing one at a time will allow the audiologist to focus on one side. So if PK was fussing and blinking, then we would know for sure that it's the left side that's too loud, because it's the only side that's on right now. If he had both on, it would be difficult to figure out any negative reaction and the cause for it. So right now, PK has his left implant on, and his right one will be activated in October.

Here's the video:

August 2012

August was a busy month!
As you know we did have PK's cochlear implant surgery this month. The previous post was all about that. He continued to do well for the rest of August and was a champ.
Patrick has finally gotten all the beginning teeth, he now has 8 teeth, crawling like a pro, cruising ALL OVER the place, and is regularly taking two to three steps at a time. He'll be walking soon.

My grandfather's funeral was the beginning of August. I was sad I couldn't go, it really broke my heart. I think only one other cousin was not able to go (and my family is *HUGE*). My siblings were great and did give me a detailed account of the funeral, pictures of the program, and my dad sent me a copy of it as well as a copy of the movie of pictures they had of him playing at the funeral home. That alone helped me reach some closure. My grandfather was pretty much my second father. I spent many many summers at my grandparents' home. I have so many memories of him. The number one thing I will always remember is how he cherished, adored and loved my grandmother. I hope Bryan and I can make it that long and love each other that much then as well.

We had a chance to go to the a National's baseball game with some friends. Unfortunately, I managed to lose one of Patrick's hearing aids there. At least it was only a week before the cochlear implant surgery :)

The day after PK's surgery, Bryan took KB to a fair so I could take care of super fussy and tired (rightfully so) PK.

Patrick has learned a lot of cueing in terms of receptive language. In the following video, whenever I'm talking, I'm also cueing. Remember, he hasn't been activated yet, and already had his surgery....so he really can't hear a thing.

This month was also Bryan's birthday. We had a bunch of friends over, and it was a blast. Our friend Jenny made an awesome carrot cake that everyone loves. Bryan really only gets this cake once a year since I do not like raisins, AT ALL, so this is his time to have one of his favorite cakes. We were able to get him some cologne for his birthday. We went out to the Frontier Museum for his birthday as well, and KB and PK loved being able to get out and play while we enjoyed reading about the different homes.